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Summonmancer
Overview The Summonmancer (a.k.a. Zookeeper, Overlord, Skelliemancer) is a build that relies on a large number of minions to overwhelm and deal damage to enemies. The role of the player in this build is to support his army by inflicting enemies with curses, replacing fallen minions and by casting Corpse Explosion. When partying with other players the Summonmancer enhances their strengths by casting appropriate curses on enemies and distracting foes with his minions. The Summonmancer Necromancer build is quite effective thanks to the synergies added in patch 1.10. Prior to this patch, maxed out skeletons were weak. The Summonmancer frequently relied on revive monster skill because the monster's life scaled with the amount of players in the map. If there were eight players, the summoned monster's life would be eight times greater. Since version 1.10, skeletons and skeleton magi became much more effective. With an Act II Offensive mercenary from Nightmare (difficulty) giving an aura, the skeleton army became quite powerful. It is even able to last until in Act V, although Hell is generally the point at which having optimized equipment becomes necessary. These type of Necromancers typically do not engage in direct combat, so the strength attribute is only raised to wear armor. The Summonmancer had certain complimentary skills. This build can generally get away with no energy, so points will go towards enough strength to use equipment, enough dexterity to use Homunculus for max block (roughly 193), with all remaining points spent on vitality. Even though the Iron Maiden curse might seem good for this build, it will not make his minions last long. In Hell mode Act V, the minions die from enemies, so skeleton mastery and items that give +skill are needed to keep them alive. Decrepify is a great curse for a summoning necromancer when fighting Act bosses because it decreases the boss' damage output. Your main curse should be Amplify Damage. When cast on an enemy, it doubles the physical damage they receive, and your skeletons do physical damage. Decrepify might seem like the better choice due to reduced enemy damage output, but properly built skeletons will seldom die anyways - so not much is gained, except against Act bosses. Using a good blocking shield with high dexterity is recommended - the percentage-based block chance scales naturally, unlike skills such as Bone Armor. The Summonmancer provides an excellent meat shield. If the Summonmancer has maxed out skeleton skills, and the proper plus-skill equipment, they can have up to thirteen skeleton warriors and thirteen skeleton mages. This vast number of minions acts as a multi-faceted tank, absorbing the damage. Since there are so many minions, it is easy for companion players to avoid getting hurt. A drawback in online play of a Summonmancer is the lag, giving it the alternate name of the Lagromancer because of the amount of minions on screen forces all computers synchronized to slow down to the speed of the slowest computer. This is a less of a problem now, for three reasons. First, there were early bugs that caused serious slowdown with lots of minions but they were fixed. Second, computers are much faster now than in Diablo 2's early days. Third, patch 1.10 reduced the number of skeletons by about a third while scaling up their power. Most players do not have problems with the large number of skeletons, as they contribute greatly to the party and in their current numbers, are generally much less than the enemies the party faces. Sample Summonmancer Starting Guide When starting a new Summonmancer, put your first skill point into Raise Skeleton and your second into Amplify Damage. Pump Raise Skeleton to level 3 and then learn Teeth, while putting any extra into Skeleton Mastery. At level 6 learn Clay Golem, and next Corpse Explosion (though you won't really need it until much later). Put the rest of your points into Raise Skeleton to increase the number of of minions (this also increases their damage and life). Continue by putting points into Skeletal Mastery, to make your minions even stronger. Initially you will get greater returns per skill point by pumping Mastery, but once it hits level 15 the percentage increase to damage from Raise Skeleton will become greater and will also increase your army size. Learn Weaken and Terror before level 24 so you can learn Decrepify which will be your primary curse against bosses in Nightmare and Hell. At least 1 point into Summon Resist is a must as well. Continue to level Raise Skeleton, but by level 30 learn Blood Golem and Iron Golem so that you can learn Revive. Max out Raise Skeleton and then Skeleton Mastery. Invest points into Raise Skeletal Mage when you start playing in Nightmare - their elemental damage will be useful later on, against monsters with high life and/or physical resistance. To summarize: 20 Raise Skeleton 20 Skeleton Mastery 5 Clay Golem 20 Raise Skeletal Mage 5 Golem Mastery 1 Blood Golem 1 Iron Golem 1 Summon Resist 1 Revive 5 Amplify Damage 1 Weaken 1 Terror 1 Decrepify 1 Teeth 5 Corpse Explosion Total Spent: 88 Remaining: 22 Further development - Put 1 point each into the remaining curses for maximum flexibility (Lower Resist can be useful). - Max Corpse Explosion to maximize its effective range. - Level up the Golem of your choice along with Golem Mastery. (Recommended: Clay or Fire Golem) - Max Bone Spear and/or Bone Spirit for ranged magic damage and to support your army. Gear A Summonmancer generally relies on items with a lot of +skill bonuses, which enable him to create more powerful skeletons. Weapon: Gravespine, Arm of King Leoric Armor: Trang-Oul's Scales Helm: Harlequin Crest or Andariel's Visage Boots: Marrowwalk Sheld: Homunculus Belt: Arachnid Mesh Gloves: Magefist Rings: Stone of Jordan Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope Charm: Necromancer Hellfire Torch, Annihilus Category:Necromancer Category:Builds Category:Necromancer Builds